US Republicans should stop pushback against climate change

A DIPLOMATIC agreement involves a process of give and take and tends to be criticised by those who believe that the compromise runs contrary to the national interest.

So it was not surprising that the US-China agreement to curb carbon emissions that American President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jiping signed in Beijing last month has been denounced by Republican lawmakers who have vowed to derail it.

Under the Sino-American deal, the United States has pledged to double its pace of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while China committed itself to reaching peak carbon emission by 2030 while increasing its reliance on non-fossil fuels to 20 per cent of its total energy consumption.